The First Week

The first week (Monday 7th Dec) started with an appointment with the head of Leonard Cheshire Disability, West Africa Regional Office (LCD-WARO), one of DST’s partner organisations. So having gone to bed late, it was another early start at 6.30am and out of the hostel before 8.30am to catch a pre-booked taxi to beat the terrible traffic jams in Freetown (there’s an opportunity here for a traffic consultant...more on that later). The head, Prof. Osman Bah, himself disabled, is energetic and welcoming and we discussed issues ranging from how I can support LCD-WARO to job opportunities, accommodation and the imminent arrival of the shipment of personal and some charity stuff. On the job front, the good Prof. offered to send my CV to the Dean of Engineering at the University of Sierra Leone for a part-time lectureship position. I had to quickly format my CV and later prepared a covering letter, which he sent off...now waiting for feedback on that. But the best bit of the meeting was when he mentioned that, as partners, he is happy to offer me an office in their conference room to work from. In return, I can help them with some technical aspect of the office, especially ensuring their regional office website is completed - who says battering is a thing of the past...in fact, at times, this is the best way to achieve mutual benefits!

With netbook and basic stuff, I had an office to operate from, albeit temporarily, until DST establishes its own office. I quickly set out to make contacts to fix appointments with an IT company, track down some old contacts in UNDP, World Vision, AITH and our very own Patron, Hon Julius Nye Cuffie..

The first appointment on Tuesday 8th December was with Hon Julius Nye Cuffie to (1) brief him on DST strategy and sponsorship programme, (2) discuss the composition of the DST interview panel in Sierra Leone, (3) plan the launch of DST sponsorship award which will involve invitations to the first lady, government ministers, aid agencies, media, government officials, industry, NGOs and so on. (4) I also wanted to pick his brains (as the first trained disabled lawyer in SL and one of our patrons) on how to go about registering DST as a local NGO. We covered a lot at this meeting with actions for both of us to follow up on.

The next stop was a meeting with the Managing Director of an IT firm. I had met the director at a government ICT Taskforce back in February 09 when we (two friends, Steph and Don Littlejohn) visited Sierra Leone. The purpose of this meeting was to brief the MD on DST’s planned activities in SL; extend an invitation to the launch of DST sponsorship programme, and to find out (the personal bit) if there was job opportunity with his company. Good meeting with the action that he will get in touch as soon as something in the area of website development comes up and he will circulate my CV to colleagues in other organisations. Back to my ‘office’ at LCD-WARO to review my notes and set up more meetings for the next day.

Wednesday 9th December - briefly in the LCD-WARO office at 8.30am but then off to a meeting pencilled in with the General Manager of African Information Technology Holdings Ltd (AITH). Like the meeting with MD the day before, the purpose and agenda item covered for this meeting were exactly the same, with one notable addition. I had approached AITH from the visit in February to see if they could be one of our training providers. So the rest of our conversation was trying to assess their competences, what they can offer, how they intend to deliver the training and at what cost - fulfilling the initial DST objectives for me coming to Sierra Leone. Our meeting ended with an invitation from the GM to come back to AITH the next day for an informal chat about a possible part-time opportunity delivering some lectures for them.

Thursday, 10th December - by now I was buzzing. To sum up so far; I am settling well and in less than a week, I have managed to secure a temporary office space with one of our partners and I have some part-time opportunity lined up with an IT company, World Vision, two lecturing positions. What could possibly go wrong now? Well, to that later...keep reading

I was up early again for an 8.30am meeting in the Vice President’s Office with his ICT Technical Advisor (again someone I had met at the SL’s eGovernment and ICT Taskforce in Feb) to tell him about DST’s plans including our launch plans and demo the website I have been developing for the Sierra Leone High Commissioner in London. Also, I wanted to find out how I can be involved in the ICT Taskforce as a technical consultant and whether there was any supporting role for me to play in any areas of ICT. His response was very positive, he identified three areas in which I could be involved in but will contact me as soon as he gets back from a business trip in France and Christmas holiday in the Northampton, UK.

After this meeting, I headed for my informal interview with AITH at 12noon. The interview went well and they were very impressed with my background and professional experience. They were keen to have me on board, the only thing now was to choose whether to have me on-a-call-off contract or put me in their books as a part-timer employer, having offered them this options in our discussions. As they pondered over this, they also had to decide how to pay me...I had indicated in the interview that I only needed enough salary to survive in Sierra Leone - pay my rent and something to cover my travel and food; my focus is really on establishing DST’s work in the country.

The afternoon was a pre-arranged meeting with another of our partners - Mrs. Melrose Cotay of INCLUDE. You couldn’t find a better networked woman in SL...she virtually knows every important person in the country. Anyway, our meeting was to brief her on where we’ve got to with DST, in particular our two prong strategy of firstly, in the short-term, providing sponsorship and secondly in the medium term, setting up an employment agency/office. This is all important, for example, could DST operate in the offices of INCLUDE and how can the two organisations work together.

I mentioned before how well networked Mrs Cotay is - during the meeting, she mentioned in passing that she had met an old friend in the shops who use to live in the UK. She is back now in Sierra Leone and she’s got a three bedroom house to rent. I was immediately interested...this is another of my top priority - find accommodation in one month! She gave me her number and I called her and she told me she will pick me up at 5pm to go and show me the place. Our meeting continued on the final item on my list - tasking Mrs Cotay to help organise the launch of the DST sponsorship programme, with a warning that we don’t have funds and so we could end up offering our time for free. For those things we have to pay for, they’ll either come out of my own pocket or find someone/organisation to sponsor the event...so additional stuff on the 12 months in SL to-do list!

I was picked up to go and view the property - excellent location, not far from Lumley Beach, good spot to relax at the weekend, after all the week’s hard work. Access was not great though, but with a suitable vehicle, it was peaceful and ideal for accommodating visiting friends who want to come and help with the charity. I negotiated the rent for $3000/year as I could pay this with a suitable part-time job. She shook-hand on the deal and the lady kindly asked for her driver to drop me off at Lumley junction. I was so excited, I kept thinking about the accommodation all night; how I was going to move in during the weekend - I emailed my friends who are coming end of January that I’ve found a place.

The bombshell! Friday 11th December - I am trying to work out why so many disappointments happen on a Friday! The lady had suggested during the negotiation that I paid in all $3000 in cash and at first I was a little baffled by this...normally you pay a deposit and then monthly payments. Then the questions, where am going to get $3000 cash - as I said the place is in a great location and the rent was very good, even cheaper than my YMCA hostel accommodation, so I even entertained the idea that I will take it, hoping God will provide somehow. So when I phoned on Friday morning that I could put in a deposit of $1000, a combination of the remaining hostel rent - a financial support from EBC and some dollars, I was shocked further to hear that her son had spoken to her and that she should be charging $4000/year. Well, I took in deep breath and said, but we agreed $3000. Even at $4000, this was still do-able, depending of course, what sort of part-time job I end up getting. So I said, well, could you please set up a contract and perhaps, add a 6 months break-out clause, so that I can pay the $1000 deposit - the response I got back was unbelievable! She doesn’t do contracts and that she wants the full amount in cash. I said, this is not right, how can I pay this huge amount of money with no receipt or contract to show for it. You see, I nearly had my fingers burned in Sierra Leone back in 2005 - lots of scams are going on, people trying to flog you property that don’t belong to them or sell you government land, passing it as theirs. You hand in your money and they disappear...Now I am not saying this was the case here...this is a 63 year old lady but from past experience, I was very suspicious, her son has suddenly got involved and she wanted cash with no way of proving later-on that I had paid the rent. We ended the conversation with her suggesting she will speak to her son again and call me back.

By now I had explained everything to Mrs. Cotay on my way back to the hostel and she understood my reaction. She phoned her friend whilst we were heading to the British Council building to book their hall for the launch event. Her friend told her I was too clever and that I wanted a contract and she didn’t want the hassle. When I phoned again to check whether everything was OK, the bombshell dropped...she has now decided not to rent the place! Her son will come back and stay there. What expended energy? I was totally devastated but this time, I’ve learnt how to deal with such disappointment. I was calmed, thought through all my options...and philosophical about the whole thing. How could I have found a property in the first week, this was meant to be in my first month...so I still have time. So, although it was a pretty bad end to the week, nevertheless, I had done well, tried not to be too hard on myself - I got very close to finding the perfect accommodation in my first week!